AP II LC440

Guess who's got one of these?!

That's right... I have... you wanna see it?

Sounds a bit Rolf Harris!!

It's a Mats, so...yes.


But you'll need to do a humbucker excision on that bad boy.

Yes, yes we do!

Is it green? Will we ever 'king know!..

He probably forgot all about it, given his age and whatnot

I think he's removing that centre pickup for me.
There's a good lad!

Probably gone for a 'Walkabout'

Well, here it is for those who want a look...

http://www.matsumoku.org/ggboard/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=12383&start=10

Do like the finish on that much better than green.

It's no carved top though. That there is known as a 'cave top'

... and here we are. Mostly done with all of the hardware swapped out for black rather than the tatty gold. I like it loads, and it plays beautifully, low and slick with loads of tone; nice!









Gotoh bridge and locking tuners, SG knobs and black Schaller straplock buttons to come.
I think it was originally wired as a 3V/1T but has been modified at some stage previously; I may at some stage put it back to standard but at the moment, I like it just fine the way it is!

Black suits it..  

3V, 1T + coil tap

Yeah, I think so, eh!! 

OK... how does the addition of the coil split switch differ from this diagram?



Thanks, troops!!

the diagram does not show the center tap for each pickup
you could use one of these switches

to wire the switch;
connect ground to all the lugs in the center row
connect center tap wire from each pickup to it's own lug on one side row

all three pickup connections on the same side, the four lugs on the other side remain unused

Your mini switch in there a 3pdt? 9 lugs?

From each pup a white and a red?

@Mike... Yes, I know it doesn't show the coil tap; it is, however, the closest one I've found to what my guitar should be! Assumedly, then, the switch that's in there is the original and can be wired the same way younsuggest?

@Damian... yep, and yep. The red wires at the moment are just loose in the cavity.

wire all 3(red) to middle of the mini switch
common to all one side of switch
wire the now 'floating' white as per the other two pups on the volume.

Thanks, all; I shall crack on and get it done when I find a hour or two spare!!

Gotta love this site, eh!!

OK.... back on this now!! 

Damian, so if I understand correctly, what we're doing here is just sending that signal on the red wire straight to earth, thereby shorting out half the humbucker, yes, and that the middle pickup is never on, on its own? It's more of a blend thing by altering the volume?

There's no way, is there, of having that 3pdt switch select between h/b - s/c for each pickup individually, and having each pickup selected individually while retaining that 3 way pick up selector? It would have to be a 4 way....

Sorry to bang on about this, but I'm having trouble understanding what the rationale here is!! The 2 diagrams above - the 3 h/b one and Damians' addition - make perfect sense and given that no-one I've been able to contact knows EXACTLY how this is wired OEM, it is the way I will proceed!

They originally had a coil tap on all pickups.

That's what my sketch is.

Hence you have 3 floating red wires.

Or leave the middle pup off the coil tap switch, experiment...

Maybe these photos will assist, as far as I am aware this is original.
I understand from the previous (and only) owner that the bridge pup was replaced with a period DiMarzio but the wiring configuration remained.












As you can see from all the dust, not been tampered with recently 

Good on you both!! Hells teeth.... what is going on with that mini switch?!?!

Funny you should ask....

It appears my electrics are all over the shop as well. I seem to have 2 volume control knobs for the neck pickup...and none at all for the bridge...

I'd just fiddled around with them in the past until I got it to sound right...

So I guess mine must have been altered when he put the Dimarzio in. Looking at the mini switch it appears that a red wire might have been removed from the centre lug?
The plot thickens....

Are we assuming that the OEM had 1 tone and 3 volume knobs?

In which case mine is way off.

How does the Dimarzio sound, thin?

I think I may have a solution to this. The middle pickup wired straight to the output, and the neck and bridge wired traditionally, ie n/n&b/b.

Reports soon..

*later*

... and all is well!! I've done what I set to do and restore to some semblance of normality, and given that no-one actually knows empirically how these were set up originally, I'm well pleased with the results.

As stated above, the 3way is standard LP, ie n/n&b/b with the middle straight through it's volume pot to the output. This means that the middle is always on - and can never be on by itself - but it's output can be blended with the others or just turned right down. Simple, really, though it gave me conniptions trying to work out how it worked with the hardware it has.
Thanks to Damian, the coil taps work a treat but will never be mistaken for single coils; they have far too much heft to them!! H/B values are about 11.5kΩ for each; I have other guitars with the same value pickups that do not sound anywhere near as muscular... the wood, perhaps; the main body is mahogany.

Anyway, it's now inside on the rack with my Spectrum GTBass and 2 Vantages - the 12 and a VA 30 acoustic; a regular Matsumoku gathering! I've got most guitar sounds covered, eh!

Ooooh... this is really nice! I've never given a hell of a lot of thought to the difference the wood makes to the sound, but this thing has a mahogany body with a sycamore top and is just epic!!

Oddly, too, I've found the shape quite comfy to play after 30+ years of guitars with upper horns...

If you see one of these APII LC transition models, I suggest that you buy it!!

I love mahogany in a geetar.